the Zwinglian Church of England that composed these formes made no difference betweene a Bishop a Priest and a Christian because that was the current Doctrine in all reformed Churches in those dayes and particularly in the Zwinglian See the 23. of the 39. articles of the Church of England a Priest or a Bishop was he that was appointed by the Congregation to preach their Ghospel it was but an extrinsecall denomination a meere formality taken from the will of the faithfull brethren and from a square cap and a linnen rochet This is made evident by the example of Iohn Hooper who could never be dispensed withall by Cranmer and Ridley in the cap and rochet when he was to be made Bishop of Glocester though they never troubled him with imposition of hands or ordination Pag. 1366. I cannot tell faith Fox what sinister and unlucky contention concerning the ordaining and consecration of Bishops and of their apparrell with other like trifles began to disturb the good and lucky beginning of this godly Bishop c. In conclusion he was faine to agree to this condition t at sometimes he should in his sermons shew himselfe apparailed as the other Bishops were His upper garment was a long scarlet shymar downe to the foote and under that a white linnen rochet that covered all his shoulders Vpon his head he bad a geometricall or mathematicall cap that is a foure squared cap with foure angles dividing the whole world into foure parts albeit his head was Round You may perceive by this how little they valued Ordination in King Edwards dayes all their care was that the appearance and exteriour formality of a Bishop should be maintained because that would maintaine them and keepe them in possession of the Bishops revenues and of a place in the upper House of Parliament All was policy there was nothing of Religion 6 They tooke as little care of Priesthood as of Episcopacy which you may gather also out of Fox his Calendar Pag. 1456. Doctor Ridley saith he that worthy Bishop of London called John Bradford to take the degree of Deacon according to the order that then was in the Church of England but for that this order was not without some such abuse as to the which Bradford would not consent the Bishop then was content to order him Deacon without any abuse even as he desired So that you may guesse how all Protestants were ordered not onely in King Edwards reigne but also in his Fathers Henry the VIII seeing Ordination was not urged but given to every man in the forme that he desired And this is the reason why most Writers say that all who were Hereticks in King Henry his time and are pretended to be ordained Bishops in the latter end of his reigne as Barlow and some Suffragans were really never ordained because Ordination did not agree with their spirit and was contrary to their inclination and to the Tenets and practise of all Churches pretending Reformation Fox also tells us of one Robert Drakes made Deacon by Doctor Taylor of Hadley who was no Bishop and afterwards was admitted Minister of Gods Words and Sacraments by Cranmer and Ridley not after the order then in force but after such order as was after established every one was ordained as he desired And as for Iohn Bradford after his Deaconship he was immediatly without any other orders made Prebend and Preacher of Saint Paules where sharply saith Fox he opened and reproved sinne sweetly he preached Christ crucified pithily he impugned heresies and errours earnestly he perswaded to good life And all this you must knowe was performed with one onely yeares study in Cambridge Bradford having beene all his life before a serving man None that will read what we have said of this Zwinglian Clergy can admire Brookes novell cases Placito 463. sol 101. printed at London 1604. that in Queene Maries reigne all King Edward the VI. Bishops were declared no Bishops both in the spirituall and temporall Courts and therefore all Leases made by them as Bishops were not available It s very like the Judges informed themselves of the matter of the fact before they pronounced the sentence and if Protestants have no exceptions against the sentence of Queen Maries Courts but the Catholick Religion of the Judges how can themselves expect to be heard or credited in any matter of fact or faith that concerns Roman Catholicks 7 This politike Religion and lay Clergy was banished out of England by Queene Mary after the death of her brother King Edward many of the chiefe pillars thereof were burnt as obstinate Hereticks according to the ancient Lawes of Christian Emperours and Kings of England others to escape the sire passed over the Seas to Germany the native soile of their errours No sooner were they arrived to Frankford but Calvin pretended a right in them as agreeing with his Doctrine though they would not admit his Discipline and therefore he writ to Knox and Whittingham Calvin ep 200. ad Knox. In Anglicana Liturgia qualem describitis multas video fuisse tolerabiles ineptias I see that in the English forme of Service as you describe it there were many tolerable fooleries Many there were saith my Protestant Author and that of the learnedst of those that then departed the Realme The survay of the pretended holy Discipline printed an 1593. pag 46. as Doctor Cox Doctor Horne Master Iewell with sundry others who perceiving the tricks of that Discipline did utterly dislike it So as when they came afterwards to Frankford they wholy insisted upon the platforme of England and in short time obtaining of the Magistrats the use thereof they did choose either Doctor Cox or Doctor Horne as I guesse or some such other as had beene of speciall account in King Edwards time to be as it were their Superintendent Now we see clearly how the English Ordination was not in those dayes by imposition of hands but by election according to their translation of Scripture and how the Congregation did make their Bishops for they translate also in their Bible Superintendent for Bishop Why should any rationall man doubt but that the very same men who without any Episcopall consecration made a Bishop in Frankford wold doe the same in the Nags-head at London Iewell Horne Cox and the rest at Frankford were the first pretended Bishops of England in Queene Elizabeths reigne But of this more hereafter in the ensuing Section SECT VII Of the English Protestant Church in Queene Elizabeths reigne 1 IF ever Policy was transformed into Religion it was by Queene Elizabeth and those who favoured her illegitimacy against the knowne right of Mary Steward to the Crowne of England It was as evident that she was right heire as it was that Henry the VIII could not have two lawfull wives at once and in the first yeare of Queene Maries reigne it was declared by Act of Parliament that Queene Catharine was lawfull to King Henry
obedience is equally destroyed by Atheisme and Protestancy Though the signes of a supreme Deity be as evident and visible to the eyes of Atheists as this world and all its creatures yet they deny obedience to that supreme Deity and though supernaturall signes as miracles and sanctity of life be as evident to the eyes of Protestants in the Roman Church and no other as any thing can be yet they deny obedience to the said Church both agree in destroying that principle upon which the obligation of beliefe and obedience is grounded Policy and civill government can as little stand without this principle as a house can without out a foundation Atheists and Protestants doe agree in undermining not onely Religion but also the authority of Princes and Commonwealths and therefore both doctrines ought to be equally prohibited and suppressed 4 In one respect Protestancy is more dangerous to civill government then Atheisme An Atheist expects not any invisible power providence to support him because he believeth none a Protestant persuades himselfe that God will second his zeale for the Ghospel and consequently is more resolute and daring if God to punish the sinnes of others permits a Protestant to have good successe in his first attempts he thinks that successe is a new engagement to proceed further looking upon himselfe as an instrument of providence to carry on the imaginary worke or the Lord. The Atheist thinks of no such providence or engagement but attributeth his successe to his owne industry and is not so fierce constant and dangerous an enemy to the civill government as a Protestant Though all this had not beene evident by reason as necessarily following out of Protestant principles yet its manifest by experience and history as we have seene in this Treatise Chap. 7. but because in the next I am to treate of the tyranny and rebellions of Protestancy I will end this with onely assuring my Reader that Polititians were never more unhappy or more grosely mistaken then in the beginning and promoting a pretended Reformation that doth not onely lead men to Atheisme but makes them incapable of being governed after they have shaken of the yoke of obedience to divine Authority appearing more sufficiently and evidently in the Roman Catholick Church then any Kings authority doth appeare in his Lieutenant or subordinate Officers But now let us proceed and descend to particulars by shewing CHAP. VIII That Protestancy inclines the Prince to Tyranny and the Subjects to Rebellion 1 PRinces may be Tyrants though the Religion they professe be good but that Religion cannot be good which inclines Princes to tyranny A Tyrant is he who rules either without or against Law making his owne will and pleasure the modell of his government To rule against the knowne and practised sense of the Law is to rule against Law because the essence of a Law consists in the sense not in the letter The fundamentall Lawes of a Christian Commonwealth are the holy Scriptures to rule against the knowne and practised sense of these Lawes is the greatest tyranny because it is to rule without and against Law it is to rule without Law because Gods sense is left out and the Reformers fancy or the Prince his pleasure is thrust into its place and Scripture is not Gods Law without Gods sense It is also to rule against Law because the Protestant sense of Scripture is contrary to the knowne and practised sense of Gods Word whereby the Church hath beene governed since the time of the Apostles This proves nothing lesse then I supposed in the title of the Chapter it demonstrates clearly that when Protestant Princes are not Tyrants we may thanke themselves and not their Religion which is directly opposite to the Law of God and inconsistent with the duty Princes owe to divine Majesty whence also it followed that it is an inclination to Tyranny against the Lawes and liberties of the Land because he that governeth without and against the Law or God is in a faire way and at least inclined to governe without and against the Lawes of men 2 I heare some Doctors of the English Protestant Church seeme to be much scandalized at Master Hobbes his Leriathan because he attributes so much to a Soveraigne and saith that Christian Subjects may in the exteriour profession of their Faith accommodate themselves with the Prince whether Turke or Jew I cannot answer for Master Hobbes his Christianity but this much I will say in his behalfe that I have not seene Protestancy better expressed nor more consequently deduced out of its principles then in this Authors Leviathan he is a good Protestant and an ill Christian How can any Protestant sinde fault with Master Hobbes See the 39. articles of the Protestant Religion confirmed by K. Charles an 1642. for making the Prince Head of the Church and sole Interpreter of Scripture Why should 12. or 7. men in King Edward the VI. time or a few Ministers in Queene Elizabeth and King Iames his reigne assume to themselves a power of framing a new Religion and coyning a new sense of Scripture contrary to antiquity and the knowne practise of all Christian Churches and in particular that of England Why should they I say assume this unlimited power to themselves and deny it to their Soveraigne 3. Ed. 6.12 5. Ed. 6.1 and his Counsell If they examine well they will finde Master Hobbes doth no more And if they acknowledge this great power in spirituall affaires to be inherent to the Soveraignes person as they doe 8. Eliz. 1. even by their Acts of Parliament how can they deny him in the temporall as absolute and unlimited a power as Master Hobbes is forced to grant by the foundation and principles of Protestant Religion Doe not the Doctors of the English Church averre that from the Popes Primacy and Headship of the Church must evidently follow an Antichristian Tyranny inconsistent with the prerogative dominion and security of Kings and the liberty of Subjects why doe they not inferre die same consequence from the Soveraignes supremacy I am sure they attribute greater power to their Kings Queenes and petty Doctors then Catholicks doe to the Pope or generall Councells who according to our Tenets cannot pare of any thing from the matter and forme of Sacraments nor alter the ancient sense of Scripture contrary to tradition and the practise of the Catholicks Church but Protestancy acknowledgeth all this power to be inseparable from the Kings and Queenes of England and yet doth confesse that both King and Protestant Church may erre against Christian Faith in their Reformations no Subject notwithstanding must speake a word against those errours he must accommodate himselfe to them in all his exteriour actions though he be convinced in judgement that they are against Catholick Religion I would faine knowe in what doth this doctrine of theirs differre from Master Hobbes Both agree in the substance both grant that men may dissemble their Faith and deny
in that excellent Booke The Protestants Apology for the Church of Rome 4 Whereas ceremonies be the object of phantasy and ours are so decent that no phantasy can except more against them then against those of the Law of Moyses instituted by God himselfe and approved by Protestants the aversion which they manifest against our Ceremonies cannot proceed so much from their fancy as from their understanding dissenting from that Doctrine to which the Ceremonies relate To kneele is not an object ridiculous or offensive to the fancy the most precise practise it out of Churches and at Court and yet all Protestants cry abomination against kneeling to our Lord Iesus Christ in the Sacrament or worshiping himselfe or his Saints in Images these ceremonies agree well enough with their fancy but their understanding cannot brooke them A weake understanding may occasion as great errours as a strong fancy 5 Some fantasticall and fanaticall fellowes call the Roman Catholick Religion an Apith Keligion because forsooth it hath so many odde ceremonies But the fault is not in the Roman Religion or ceremonies they have Apish understandings they looke as Apes upon our ceremonies without considering the mysteries All the ceremonies of the Masse relate to Christs Passion others to the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation If it was lawful and laudable in the old Law to practise ceremonies representing things that were to come why should we Catholicks be censured for ceremonies that put us in minde of past mysteries and mercies We ought not to be unmindfull or ungratefull and there is not a more efficacious way to preserve a gratefull memory of past benefits then by representing them in ceremonies to the light 6 I must confesse that all Sectaries have as great cause to cry downe ceremonies as we Catholicks have to uphold them Because the strongest pillar of the true Church is a continuall tradition of Catholick Doctrine from the primitive times to this present and this pillar of Tradition is much strengthened by the practise of ceremonies relating to that Doctrine delivered from hand to hand which we now maintaine as Catholick against Heresy or pretended Reformation To adore the blessed Sacrament both in Church and Processions is a strong argument of Christs reall presence not onely in the act or use of Communion but also before and after What mervaile therefore that they who deny Christs reall presence or grant it onely in the actuall use of Communion should oppose the adoration whereby their false Doctrine is so clearly condemned by the practise of the faith full these and other Catholick ceremonies are not odious to Protestants because they are ceremonies but because they put them in minde of the ancient Faith and Doctrine of Christs Church To reject some of the ancient ceremonies and retaine others as the Nags-head Congregation doth is to furnish their adversaries Catholicks and Puritans with unanswerable arguments their choice of ceremonies doth prove their choice of Doctrine and their choice of Doctrine demonstrates them Hereticks an Heretick being he who chooseth out of the Doctrine delivered by the Church what he fancies rejecting what he thinkes not fit for his purpose Our Prelaticall Protestants must with the rest cast away their Bishops bonnet lawne sleeves he white surplise and black scarfe if not they may cast their cap and despaire of answering to Catholick or Puritan objections they must keepe all or nothing unlesse they can produce better evidence for their pretended Reformation then the fancy of 7. or 12. men in King Edward the Sixth his time confirmed by the authority of a yong head of the Church and a Parliament called by the Protector Seamour to establish in England Zwinglian fopperies and reject the Christian Doctrine and discipline of our Catholick Ancestors they must not rely upon Queen Elizabeths she supremacy or their Nags-head Ordination and Synod with their London Assemblies and Hampton-Court Conferences of lay Ministers God must be served his owne way and not by framing Religions â—o the humor of people or interests of Kings Queenes Parliaments and Protectors But before we goe further in censuring these Protestant wayes let us prove CHAP. IV. That to believe God and consequently to serve him his owne way its necessary to repaire to an infallible Guide which is no other but the Roman Catholick Church 1 THe first step in the way of Gods service is to believe God a step of no lesse difficulty then necessity Suppose there were a man dropt downe from the heavens graced with this singular privilege that the sound of his words could no sooner be at our eares then the evidence of their truth before our eyes whatsoever he said in the same instant we did see confirmed by the reall appearance of the objects and our own experience This singular privilege would deprive him of another common to all men of worth and integrity it would make him uncapable or being believed all who heare him would assent to what he said but for their owne evidence not for his veracity When any thing is evident to our understanding or to our eyes we believe our selves and not others though they should tell us the same we doe experience If God were pleased to manifest himself to men in such a manner that they had evidence it is he who speaketh to them he had deprived us of the merit of Faith and himselfe of that duty which we are obliged to give every honest man for though Divine Faith doth exclude all doubts and feares of falshood yet it supposeth in the subject a possibility of doubting if men will be obstinate and imprudent but there is none so obstinate and imprudent that can doubt of the truth of Gods words if it be evident to him that God spoke them Though we heare men speak we doe them a courtesie in believing them because they are fallible and we doe not read the truth in their words though we believe them but if we had evidence that God uttered any words the truth of them must be as cleare as it is that he can neither lye nor be mistaken and if the truth be cleare and evident to our understandings we believe our selves and not God though he should speake it To believe is to trust and he that hath evidence of any truth doth as little trust the speaker as we rely upon anothers credit for the money we have in our own coffers 2 Seeing therefore that either God must not be believed by men or that he must disguise himselfe and speake to them by others who can be so impudent as to deny that we deserve damnation if we doe not believe and obey God in that Church which he hath beene pleased to institute as his owne Interpreter Quod autem rogant unde persuadebimur à Deo fluxisse Scripturam nisi ad Eccleisae decretum confugiamus perinde est ac si quu roget unde discemus lucem discernere à tenebris album nigro c. lib. 1. Inst
as naturally and vehemently inclined to their Religion as we are to our owne liberties and pleasures what greater miracle then that sober and learned men should be perswaded that their senses are deceived in the Sacrament of the Altar and that they should suffer death for the mystery of Transubstantiation These must be effects of supernaturall grace and Not of ignorance or obstinacy which cannot be laid to our charge seeing we submit our judgements to every definition of the Roman Church and our very adversaries knowe we are learned 6 Sanctity of life is a supernaturall signe and effect of grace and of the true Church This sanctity is evident in the Roman Church Not to speake of Antomes Hilarions or Stilluas lets drawe nearer our times and consider the lives of Saint Bernard Saint Dominike Saint Francis Saint Vincent Ferrer Saint Francis of Paula Saint Charles Borromeus Saint Teresa Saint Francis Xaverius and many more who were knowne Roman Catholicks professing the same Tenets and obedience to the Pope which we now maintaine against pretended Reformation And not to speake onely of the dead let any indifferent person consider how in all vocations of both Clergy and Layty we have many persons eminent in vertue farre above that degree of morality to which some Protestants may attaine as well as some Pagans and Philosophers who were farre from Christian perfection called sanctity of life Let our English Protestant be pleased to weigh with himselfe whether yong Ladies of as great quality fortunes and gifts of nature as England doth afford could forsake their native Countrey kindred and friends contemne all pleasures of the world and themselves by embracing a religious poore and penitent life in perpetuall end sure submitting their wills to the obedience and humour of a woman could this I say be performed by so many so continually and with so great alacrity and content of minde without a miraculous and supernaturall grace of the Almighty In my judgement it s a greater miracle that such persons should resolve by a voluntary banishiment to dye to their Countrey and friends and to the whole world by a religious profession and to bury themselves alive in a Cloyster then if they had restored life to others and banisht death from graves and monuments 7 Now after that our Protestant Gentleman hath considered our Catholick Monasteries let him examine whether in his owne Church there hath beene or now is any thing resembling so much Religion and supernaturall vertue as that which amongst us is not admired though admirable because so ordinary This kinde of life is as farre from Protestants practise and Doctrine as it is from naturall inclination Yet I have heard that Master Laud of Canterbury was once inclined to erect some Protestant Nunneries in England I believe it would occasion as great stirres as his Reformation did in Scotland because no thing is more opposite to the Tenets of the reformed Ghospel and first Reformers then to make vowes of poverty chastity and obedience Protestancy begunne and is founded upon the dissolving of Monasteries and religions vowes and is not compatible with their observance if things must be carried on by the same meanes that acquired them a being It s very true that Cranmer of Canterbury the first Patriarch of Protestancy in England caused an enclosure of wood to be made I meane a Chest wherein he shut up his woman and carryed her along with himselfe wheresoever he travailed whereof ensued an odde accident at Gravesend where the Chest being much rccomended to those that carryed it to the Inne as containing pretious stuffe belonging to my Lords grace they severed it from the rest and put it up end-long against the wall in my Lords chamber with the womans head downward which putting her in jeopardy to breake her necke she was forced at length to cry out and so the Chamberlins helpt her out of her enclosure This is amost certaine story saith my Author in his Examen of Fox his Calendar cap. 7. n. 27. and testified at this day by Cranmers sons widdowe yet living The Prelates of the Catholick Church carry portable Altars but the first Protestant Prelate and reformed Apostle of England could not travaile without his portable Monastery farre more agreable to the Religion he planted then Matter Lauds intended plantation of religious and chast Nunneries 8. The conversion of Nations to Christianity is not onely a signe of the true Church but also the end of its institution This is so proper to the Roman Catholick even at this present that none who heard the names of America Angola China Monomotappa India or Iaponia can be ignorant of our pious endeavours and miraculous successe in preaching the Ghospel to so remote Nations where nothing that is coveted in this world could be aymed at or expected by our Apostolicall Preachers I will not say any more concerning the signes of the true Church these being susficient to convince any person that desires to be saved that out or the Roman Church there is no salvation seeing it alone hath supernaturall and visible signes whereby God doth declare sufficiently that it is an infallible guide to informe men of his mysteries and direct them in the way he hath prescribed for his Divine service commanding all mortalls to heare and obey it as they would heare and obey himselfe Whosoever doth the contrary injures God and calleth his Divine veracity in question 9 God is as much injured by Protestants and all others who deny or doubt of what the Roman Catholick Church proposeth in his name as any man can be injured by not being believed when he speakes The injury done to men when they are not believed consists in not trusting them or in not taking their word for the truth though the truth doth not appeare If we doe not trust God and take his Word as it is uttered by the Roman Catholick Church for truth we are resolved not to trust him at all because when any truth is evident to us we cannot receive it by trust from another and if God should speake immediatly to us and declare that himselfe speaketh the truth of his words is as evident to us as it is that he cannot lye and by consequence there is no roome left for trust Therefore either we must trust him and take his Word for truth when he speakes by that Church which hath supernatural signes or not at all and that Church is onely the Roman Catholick That God doth not speake to us immediatly by himselfe as men doe but by the Church doth not diminish the injury but makes it possible It doth not diminish the injury clone to God because it doth appeare as clearly and suffiently by the testimony and supernaturall signes of the Roman Catholick Church that what is by it proposed is Gods Word as it doth appeare by any mans owne testimony and signes of integrity and sincerity that he speaketh truth To be solicitous to knowe evidently who is the Author
of any words when he disguiseth himselfe and desires to be incognito is too much curiosity and ill manners But a resolution not to believe any words proposed as Divine revelation by the Church because it is not evident that God is the Author of them is hereticall obstinacy For its unreasonable to exact a clearer knowledge of the Author then of the truth of the words if we are bound to believe the truth though it be not evident we can have no reason to exact evidence of the Author especially when the truth of his words must be evident if he be knowne and consequently our resolution doth extend it selfe to this that we will not believe untill the truth be evident which is not onely obstinacy but manifest foppery because it is as much as to say We will believe nothing at all It s therefore as evident an injury to God to deny the Doctrine of the Roman Catholick Church though it be not evident that God is the Author thereof as it is to deny the truth of any mens words when they speake themselves though the truth be not evident unlesse perhaps we thinke it reasonable to exact of God what we cannot of men to wit whensoever he speakes not to believe his words unlesse we have evidence of their truth for if God be truth and we are resolved not to believe his words unlesse he manifests himselfe we are resolved not to believe them untill their truth be manifest seeing God is the truth of his owne words because he is truth by essence Of men we exact not so much we believe their words though the truth be obscure 10 This injury which is done to God consists in calling in question his veracity which is an inclination to speake truth Gods veracity is called in question whensoever any thing is sufficiently proposed as his Word and yet it is not believed that it is his Word or revelation Whether the matter sufficiently proposed by the Church as Gods Word and consequently as truth be great or small absolutely necessary or not it matters not as to the deniall or doubt of Gods veracity because he is as necessarily inclined to speake truth in a matter of little concernment as in the greatest Seeing therefore that the deniall or doubt of mens veracity consists in questioning what is sufficiently proposed as their sense and meaning and that the Doctrine and sense of Scripture embraced by the Roman Catholick Church is sufficiently proposed by its testimony and evident supernaturall signes to be the sense revelation and meaning of God his veracity must be as much questioned by calling in question the least Doctrine of the Roman Church as the veracity of men is called in question by doubting of their words whereby their thoughts and meaning are sufficiently proposed 11 From what hitherto hath beene said it s as evidently concluded that the Roman Catholick Church is infallible in all matters great and small proposed by it as Divine revelation as it is cleare that God would have men believe him or that he hath a regard to his owne honour and veracity he is not concerned in either if he permits any one falihood in the least matter necessary for salvation or not necessary to be sufficiently proposed by the Church as his Word or sense seeing he may so easily prevent it and not permit the Roman Catholick Church to erre in any proposall How can God exact or expect from us an undoubted or infallible beliefe when he speaketh and dâ—clareth his minde by men if those very men be not infallible in declaring his minde What injury can it be to God that we doubt of his veracity if in his owne hearing and presence his owne Interpreter the Church is by himselfe permitted to erre and abuse his name and authority We may lawfully suspect his sincerity in greater matters seeing the least blemish is as much as the greatest inconsistent with the infinite perfection of his Nature Therefore either God is contented not to be believed and to forfeit his honour and the esteeme of his veracity or that Church which hath evident and supernaturall signes of being his Interpreter which is the Roman Catholick alone is infallible in all matters great and small proposed as Divine revelation 12. Hence you may gather to what great fopperies hereticall obstinacy doth lead some of the most learned Ministers of the English Church when they print that God is satisfied with an exteriour acquiescence to the definitions of a generall Councell and of that Church which alone hath the signes and markes of being the true Catholick though there remaineth an inward doubt of the controversy defined This is as much as to say that God is content you give him the lye or afront him in private so you be pleased to say nothing of it in publick God is as much injured by thoughts as by words and an exteriour acquiescence is no satisfaction to him without interiour submission of judgement It s true some of these Hereticks grant that when all the Patriarchs and Christian Churches of the world conferre notes and are assembled together in a Councell which is not likely to be as farre as the present state of the world doth promise untill we all meete in the Valley of Iosaphat then is the time to submit our judgements which in plaine termes is to put of all Christian beliefe and obedience to God in his Church and remaine obstinate in heresie untill the day of judgement But of this more when we speake in particular of the English Church in King Iames and his sonnes reigne As for that other shame full shift of theirs to make all Christians the Catholick Church and every reformed Sect part thereof and the same with us in fundamentall articles I remit my Reader to a Treatise lately printed concernig the Nature of Catholick Faith and Heresy with reflexion upon the nullity of the English Protestant Church and Clergy and will now shew in particular CHAP. V. That all Religions pretending to reforme the Roman Catholick are but human inventions grounded upon weake policy strong fancy and sensuall pleasures 1 PRotestancy or Reformation in generall is a text of Scripture corrupted or fondly applied by the first Reformer to his owne fancy dreames or pleasure by Princes and Polititians to worldly interest and by the vulgar sort to liberty of life and rebellion against their Soveraignes Let the most zealous Protestant have so much patience as to read over this Chapter and I am confident he will be convinced by the very history without disputing that his Religion is not injured by this caracter or definition And as for our Polititian he may learne in this historicall part of his Cathechisme as many necessary precepts for his instruction as there are examples of Divine Providence against the Authors and Protectors of pretended Reformation That all may appeare without confusion I will divide this Chapter into Sections and in first place recount the beginning and
Superintendent or Bishop of the English Church by election of the Congregation without consecration perhaps instead of imposition of hands they touched his head or shoulder with the Bible as Scory did to Parker and the rest at their meeting or Congregation in the Nags-head Taverne 4 And that the world may see how unnecessary they judged imposition of hands in Ordination it will not be amisse to set downe the 23. of their 39. Protestant articles of Religion composed by those very men that met at the Nags head It is not Lawfull for any man to take upon him the office of publike preaching 23. article of the English Religion or ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to his worke by men who have publike authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lords vineyard Here is not a word of Ordination or consecration all is election and Congregation Church is not named because their meeting was not in a Church but in the Nags-head Taverne And that there may remaine no doubt of their intention and meaning to exclude all visible signes and ceremonies and consequently imposition of hands as superfluous in Ordination either of Bishops or Priests they explaine themselves in the 25. article or their Religion in these words Those five commonly called Sacraments Article 25. of the 39. composed and agreed upon by the English Protestant Church 1562. that is to say Confirmation Penance Orders Matrimony and Extreame unction are not to be counted for Sacraments of the Ghospel being such as have growne partly of the corrupt following of the Apostles partly are states of life allowed in the Scriptures but yet have not like nature of Sacraments with Baptisme and the Lords Supper for that they have not any visible signe or ceremony ordained of God If God hath not ordained any visible signe or ceremony for Ordination according to the beliefe of Parker and his Nags-head Congregation you may be sure they never troubled themselves with imposition of Episcopall hands and that a knock of the Bible upon their heads or shoulders served their turne especially being performed with so good a grace and so great gravity as Scory did in the Taverne when he made them Bishops by giving them authority to preach the Word of God sincearly This is the reason why they interpreted Saint Paules imposition of hands and the Greeke word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See the Bible printed in London 1562. when the 39 articles were published by the Nags-head Clergy Ordination by election as it was in the profane Court or Athens whereas Saint Hierom and all the Fathers declare it to be Ordination by imposition of hands So would they also it Landaffe or any other Bishop had laid hands upon them 5 They corrupted Scripture in their translations not onely to make good their Nags-head Ordination but also to justify their keeping women though some of them were Priests and could not have wives proving by Saint Paules words that he had one himselfe Have not we power to lead about a woman a sister as also the rest of the Apostles 1. Cor. 9. They translate Have not we power to lead about a wife it being evident by the circumstances and the interpretation of all the Fathers that wife was not meant in that place by the Apostle more then 1. Cor. 7. v. 1. It is good for a man not to touch a woman where they also translate woman and not wife the Greeke originall using the same word in both places And to make us Catholicks Idolaters these very Nags-head Ministers in the same yeare 1562. corrupt the Scripture 2. Cor. 6. How agreeth the Temple of God with Idols they translated and printed in their English Bible How agreeth the Temple of God with Images The same sincerity they practise in 1. Cor. 5. If any that is called a brother be a fornicator or coveteous or a server of Idols they print 1562. or a worshipper of Images But part of their wickednesse hath since beene corrected by their Protestant Brethren in later edition being ashamed of so manifest knavery And yet we must not thinke forsooth that persons who wilfully corrupted Scripture would forge records to maintaine their Nags-head Consecration 6 It were too tedious a businesse to specifie all their false and absurd translations by which they brought the Word of God to be ridiculous amongst themselves Priest in their language is Elder Church Synagogue Holy Ghost holy wind soule Carcasse Christ anointed Lord Baal Eucharist Thanksgiving Baptisme Washing Hell grave Devill Slanderer Beelzebub Lord of a flye Angells Messengers So that an exhortation to devotion in the Protestant Scripture language will move men more to laughter then to piety whereas in the Catholick Translation and phrase it moves to compunction Suppose a Catholick Priest should exhort the people thus I who am your Priest placed in the Church by the holy Ghost for the feeding of your soules doe denounce unto you in the name of Christ our Lord that unlesse ye come to the holy Eucharist with more devotion and performe better your promises made to God in Baptisme ye shall be condemned body and soule to hell and your portion shall be with the Devills I say with Beclzebub Doctor Reynolds reprehensions of Whitaker and his Angells This exhortation in the Protestant language of Scripture goes very absurdly Let us suppose therefore that a yong spruce Ptotestant Minister should step up to the pulpit and repeate the Priests exhortation in his owne phrase thus I that am your Elder placed in this Synagogue by â—he holy wind for the feeding of your carcasses doe denounce unto you in the name of the anointed our Baal that unlesse ye come to the holy thanksgiving with more devotion and performe better your promises made to God in washing ye shall be condemned body and carcasse to the grave and your portion shall be with the Slanderers I say with the Lord of a flye and his Messengers 7 These wicked men did not onely corrupt the Scripture but also the Councells and Fathers as you may see objected to them in their owne life time and evidently demonstrated by Doctor Harding in his Detection of sundry foule errours against Master Iewell and Doctor Stapletons Counterblast against Horne It is a very certaine story that one of Iewells Chaplins was converted to the Catholick Faith by overseeing the print of his bookes and putting him in minde of a notorious mistake which Iewell laught at and would not have it corrected saying that amongst a thousand Readers not one would trouble himselfe with examining the text of Saint Augustin which he had corrupted An ancient and learned man yet living hath informed me of the manner of this Master Iewells death which he had from one that was present Being preaching false doctrine
in the pulpit on a suddaine he became speechlesse carried out of the Church he recovered strength the use of his toungue but returning to the pulpit his speech failed him the second time returning the third time to preach he never spoke word more and was carried into a Catholick Gentlemans house his great friend and old acquaintance who perceiving that Iewell had not lost his senses with his speech sent for pen inke and paper put the dying man in minde of Gods mercy desired him not to despaire of it and to recant his heresy and his seducing of the simple people contrary to his owne conscience Iewell tooke the pen and he writ these words I am sorry for the many falsifications I have made both of Scripture and Fathers with that the pen fell out of his hand and he expired These are our Protestant Euangelists and Bishops 8 As for their inferiour Clergy I will give you a briefe Catalogue made by that famous Doctor Stapleton Counterblast lib 4. num 481. printed an 1567. who lived in those times And wherein I pray you saith he resteth a great part of your new Clergy but in butchers cookes catchpoules and coblers diers and dawbers fellons carrying their marke in their hand instead of a shaven crowne fishermen gunners harpers in keepers merchants and mariners netmakers potters potycaries and porters of Belingsgate pinners pedlers ruffling ruffins sadlers sheermen and sheaperds tanners tilers tinkers trumpeters weavers Whenrymen c. This rable rout of meane and infamous persons did cast so foule an aspersion upon our Protestant Clergy that even to this day the most ordinary Citizens thinke their family disgraced when any of their nearest kindred become Ministers though they be in a most certaine way to the best preferments an evident argument that either their function is but a meere mockery or that their layty hath no Religion I attibute this contempt to a malediction of God that hangs over the heads of false Preachers unsent uncalled unconsecrated as on the other side it must be a blessing of God that in the Roman Catholick Church Priests and Religious are more esteemed for their function and profession then for their abilities and quality be they never so great notwithstanding that in all Countreys many of the best Nobility and Gentry consecrate themselves to God in a religious and ecclesiasticall state of life a thing so rare amongst Hereticks that when they come to Catholick Kingdomes they are apt to mistake and talke of Priests and Friers as they did at home of their owne Nags-head Ministers but I hope they will learne good manners how obstinate soever they remaine in their errours 9 The triumphant Protestant Church doth not a little resemble their militant described by Stapleton Whosoever will peruse Fox his Acts Monuments and Calendar with Persons his Annotations may easily discerne what great difference there is betweene Protestant and Catholick Saints their miracles and ours The Protestant Legend and Martyrologe is stuffed onely with tinkers coblers butchers taylors and their pratling wives put to death in Queene Maries reigne by vertue of the ancient Lawes of Christian Emperours and Kings of England such as are yet in force against the Jewes but Queene Elizabeth made new Lawes against Catholicks and put them to death for not embracing a new heresy for which her selfe would have beene burnt in any Christian Countrey few yeares before if she had professed the same doctrine that now she imposed upon others That you may guesse at their Saints by their miracles I will give you a sight of Two propheticall and miraculous visions described by honest Iohn Fox in this manner Fox pag. 1843. See Persons his third part of the three Conversions of England cap. 7. n. 62. The Friday night before Master Rough Minister of the Congregation in London who was a Dominican Friar in Scotland was taken being in his bed he dreamed that he saw two of the guard leading to prison Cuthbert Simpson Deacon of the said Congregation Whereupon being sore troubled he awaked and called his wife saying Kate strike light for I am much troubled with my brother Cuthbert this night When she had so done he gave himselfe to read on his booke And then feeling sleepe to come upon him he put out the candle and so gave himselfe to rest againe but being a sleepe he dreamed the like dreame and awaking therewith said 0 Kate my brother Cuthbert is gone And so they lighted a candle and rose This is one miracle which Fox recounteth 10 Now shall you heare another miracle of Simpson himselfe set downe also in Fox his owne words Fox pag. 1844. The day before Simpson was condemned saith he Cloney the keeper of his prison being gone forth about eleven of the clock towards midnight Cuthbert Simpson whether in a slumber or being awaked I cannot say heard one coming in first opening the outward dore then the second after the third and so looking in to the said Cuthbert having no candle nor toarch that he could see but giving a brightnesse and light most comfortable and joyfull to his heart saying Ha unto him and so departed againe Who it was he could not tell neither dare I define saith Fox But I dare say it was Cloney the keeper that came to watch his prisoner with a light in his hand or perhaps the Protestant Deacon dreamed or fancied in the darke that one came in and said Ha unto him which may passe for a Protestant supernaturall vision and miracle Fox maketh a long discourse why the dreame of a married Friar and the imagination of Simpson the Deacon ought to be looked upon and believed as miraculous and would have all Catholick visions mistrusted and rejected though never so authentically related or recorded 11 But the greatest miracle of the English Protestant Church was Queene Elizabeth her selfe that embrued her cruell hands in the royall bloud of Mary Steward lawfull heire to the Crowne of England this English Iezabel not content to usurpe The Kingdome deprived her also of her life and put to death many noble persons that by their innocent bloud she might colour her supremacy and bastardy I will not relate what others write of her life and manners for honour of the English Nation her miracles were to have raised upstarts and hereticks from nothing and annihilated the ancient Nobility and Gentry that continued Catholicks contrary to her penall Lawes and Statutes In the beginning of her reigne was celebrated that venerable Synod or Nags-head Ministers and reverend coblers tinkers c. wherein the Protestant Creed of 39. articles was coyned the greatest part whereof consists in not believing and declaring against the Catholick Religion As her Majesty lived betweene Maid and Wife so did her Protestant Church florish betweene hauke and buzard betweene Calvin and Luthers Reformation It s strange to see how even to this day Protestant Ministers doe extoll this Queene as if she were the patterne of Religion and
its greatest height and most part of the English Protestant Doctors being of no Religion at all it was time for Gods vengeance to fall upon their Church which in King Charles his reigne was but a fancy of Christianity indifferent for all heresies and in that sense onely Catholick or universall it was an â—lla podrida of all errours a politick corporation of University men that pretended a neutrality of Religion by applying absurdly their distinction of fundamentall and not fundamentall articles of Faith Finally it was a phantasma or Ghost of Reformation that a distance seemed nothing but when men drew neare and examined its principles it was found to be nothing but weake policy and obstinate heresy almost degenerated into manifest Atheisme SECT IX Of the Kirk of Scotland 1 OF all Princes none ought to be more lamented for the heresy they have fallen into then the Kings of Scotland others perverted their Subjects by policy persecution and ill example but the Subjects of Scotland persecuted their Soveraignes for Catholick Religion and made their young King sweare to maintaine heresy before he had discretion to know what they imposed upon him and his posterity King Iames the V. of Scotland was so zealous a Catholick that in the yeare 1527. he commanded a kinsman of his owne Pathrick Hamilton by name to be burnt in Saint Andrews for his obstinacy and heresy And in the yeare 1533. called a Parliament Leslaus lib. 9. wherein he declared his resolution to live and dye in the Roman Catholick Faith and obedience to the Sea Apostolick as all his Ancestours had done since Christianity was professed in that Kingdome The three States or Scotland swore the same Acts of Parliament were made against all novelties in Religion and to prevent them it was commanded that none of the ignorant and vulgar sort should read the Scripture falsely translated into English but that all should be contented to heare the Word of God from the mouth of their Doctors and Pastors according to the institution of Christ and the continuall practise of his Church 2 In the yeare 1539. a Canon regular two Dominicans one Franciscan and some seculars were burnt for obstinate Hereticks some recanted their errours others were banished But George Buchanan a Franciscan Apostata Buchan lib. 14. escaped out of prison as himselfe relates though he conceales the cause of his imprisonment which was not onely for heresy but for Iudaisme and celebrating the Jewish ceremony of eating a Paschall Lambe with great devotion in Lent This is that mercenary knave who being bribed by Iames Steward the bastard writ so basely and falsely of that incomparable Queene Mary Steward and recounts so many fables and palpable lyes in the history of his owne Nation that the very truths are not believed Beza epist Theol. 78. Beza the Heretick calls him an excellent and most worthy man and Genebrardus graceth him with the title of an Atheisticall Poet and a drunken Buffon Basil Dorc. lib. 2. King Iames had so good an opinion of him that in his instructions to Prince Henry he forbid him the perusall of Buchanan and Knoxes writings 3 Henry the VIII of England jealous to see his Nephew Iames the V. so addicted to France that after the death of Magdalen eldest daughter to Francis King of France his first wife he tooke for his second the Duke of Guises sister desired the said Iames King of Scots to give him a meeting at York The Nobility and Clergy of Scotland opposed this conference as dangerous both to the State and Religion bringing to their Kings memory how Iames the I. his Ancestour had beene kept prisoner in England upon such an other occasion as also how Henry the VIII who had beene perfidious to God and the Church was not to be trusted Hereupon Henry declares warre against Scotland and Iames the V. raises an Army to oppose and prevent Henry by making England the Seate of the warre But because he named a Favorite of his owne to command the Army under himselfe that was not gratefull to the Nobility and people they would not obey nor concurre with their Soveraigne according to their duty This put the King into a feaver whereof he dyed the 13. of December 1542. in the 32. yeare of his age a most gallant and active Prince whole greatest fault and ruine was not to distinguish betweene the duty and the humour of his Subjects a wise Prince must so contrive things that the one be seconded by the other for if they encounter it s twenty to one but the humour of a multitude will prevaile against the duty they owe to their Soveraigne who must humour his people if he will be obeyed and goe their pace if he will be served his owne way but let him endeavour to make it appeare that he hath away of his owne and that he is not at the command of others who are hated or not regarded by those that must doe his businesse when Subjects imagine that they are not governed by their Prince but by his Favorites they often breake out into open rebellion especially if the Favorites seeme to be too imperious and uncivill It were to be wished that the people did accommodate themselves to the humour or their Prince and his Councellours and not impossible if the Prince will choose persons of honour and integrity to assist him that confound not their Masters interest with their owne ambition and passions Whether the King of Scots his Favorite was guilty of any such crime I knowe not but his case hath demonstrated to posterity that nothing can be more fatall to a Prince then to strive against the humour of his Subjects for a Favorite whose fidelities they suspect or contemne his person and abilities And if Kings will thinke it concerns their honour not to part with hated or contemned Favorits because thereby they seeme to condemne their owne choice and judgements let them consider whether it be more for their purpose to be deprived of their Kingdomes or to acknowledge that they are men and may be mistaken in choosing Councellors and Privados Yet if the Councellors grew odious since they sate at the helme the case is altered and the Prince his choice or judgement cannot be censured for removing from the management of affaires persons whose incapacity was not knowne to him before he applyed them to the government of the Commonwealth 4 But in case the unfitnesse of a Favorite for governing great affaires should be so evident that the ill successe must be attributed rather to his want of wisdome and conduct then to fortune if the Prince be obstinate in his resolution of not parting with him he must runne the hazard of being censured not onely void of judgement in his choice but also incorrigible in his errours his first choice may be excused by affection to the person or want of experience his persisting in that choice notwithstanding the continuall miscarriage of businesses must be
established their perfidious Reformation brought up King Iames in their errours the first Protestant King or Prince that by heresy stained the royall bloud and name of the Stewards There is not a family in the world that ought to hate heresy and love Catholick Religion more then his posterity none was so much persecuted by our pretended Reformers and in particular by the English Church as theirs and no Subjects were more faithfull to their Soveraigne then the Catholicks of Scotland were to their Queene Mary Steward But the education of few and tender yeares doth destroy the obligation of many ages and blot out of Princes mindes the memory of their most famous Ancestors CHAP. VI. That no Policy could heretofore or can for the future give any supernaturall appearance to the reformed Churches whereby any rationall persons may be mistaken in their way to heaven by confounding them with the true Catholick Church 1 WHat a great hand Policy had in destroying Religion and setting up Reformation hath beene demonstrated in the former Chapter and Sections I doubt not but the most vulgar apprehensions that did see the change might easily perceive the difference which was betweene the old and new Religion I am also confident all sober men of the last age did looke upon Luther Calvin Cranmer Knox and all their Reformados just as we doe upon Iames Naylor and his Quakers though now many silly soules doe reverence their memories because distance of time makes things looke as unlike themselves as distance of place A brute beast at a distance may be taken for a rationall creature and a beastly reformation may by the helpe of time and policy gaine the credit of a rationall Religion amongst misinformed and weake understandings but it can never looke like supernaturall Faith to any rationall person that will examine the grounds and fundation of it notwithstanding that wicked Clergy and Polititians have endeavoured to dabe it over with the private spirit and their owne interpretation of Scripture 2 There is the same proportion betweene Catholick Religion and Reformation as is betweene ancient Gentry and upstarts Kings out of policy or favour may bestowe titles of honour but all the policy upon earth cannot make a man an ancient Gentleman if he be not one by descent A Nobleman that derives his pedigree from Citizens cannot compare in quality with men whose Ancestors have beene time out of memory knowne Gentlemen It s just so in Religions Men may give to their Reformations very glorious titles as Mount Sion Assembly of Saints Beauteous discipline and what they please but all will not doe The ancient name of Catholick comes by descent and continuall succession not by policy to the Roman Church and not to any other pretending Reformation These new Religions may well become upstarts and new families raised by heresy but methinks the ancient Nobility and Gentry looke odly in this new fashioned faith and seeme to staine their bloud by renouncing and persecuting that Religion which their noble Progenitors for so many ages did constantly professe and gloriously maintaine both at home and abroad 3 Catholick Religion doth not onely sympathise with ancient Gentry in descent and succession but also in their Coates of armes The armes of the Catholick Religion are the supernaturall signes of the true Church visible to the world Put case that a Cheate or Mountebanck disguised like a Gentleman should intrude himselfe into the company of persons of quality in Whitehall and brag much of his Gentry but when he is desired to prove it he should ingenuously confesse that he hath no other evidence for his extraction but certaine interiour motions and impulses to heroike actions questionlesse this Mountebank would be laught at by the whole company This is the case of all reformed Churches that pretend to be the true one or part thereof without any further proofe or evidence for their Religion and interpretation of Scripture then their owne word for a private spirit as invisible in it selfe as in any effect that lookes like supernaturall It s true that many noble families whose Ancestors have beene lions as their Coates of armes testify even to this day have by degrees degenerated into lambes yet they prove by tradition and records that they descend from warlike lions Though the Roman Catholick Church had no miracles nor persons of eminent sanctity of life at the present to shew for their Religion that onely of their Ancestors in former ages would be proofe enough that they professe the right Faith because they have evidence of tradition and records that it is the same with the Faith of those who worked miracles and were Saints but reformed Churches want all such evidences and though records may be forged by Master Mason and others of the English Church neither they nor any private spirit can by all their politick devises counterfeit tradition which must goe further up into antiquity then they can reach by all humane industry But the Lord be praised for it the Roman Catholick Church hath now and had in every age evident miracles and eminent sanctity of life much resembling that of the Apostles and our primitive Fathers whereby our spirit and faith is confirmed to be truly Catholick These armes and signes of Gods Church cannot be counterfeited by Reformers because they are supernaturall and above the spheare of hypocrisy and policy A Puritan may shew the white of his eyes by lifting them up to the Lord and looke very demurely and devoutly a Nags-head Minister may walke in roba longa and weare his suplise black scarfe and square cap but none of them can attaine to an eminent degree of supernaturall sanctity or worke a miracle untill they forsake the Reformation and become Roman Catholicks 4 The pretended evidence of Scripture in favour of Reformation is not lesse ridiculous then the private spirit Let us track our Mountebank Gentleman and follow him to the Courts of Westminster after his being repulsed and laught at in Whitehall for proving his Nobility onely by interiour impulses Suppose he should in the open Court lay claime to some ancient Gentlemans inheritance descended from father to sonne for many ages and should produce no other evidence or proofe for this pretended right but his adversaries owne patent in vertue whereof the ancient Gentlemans Ancestors and himselfe possessed the estate but because some words in the patent may be interpreted by the Mountebanks ambition and coveteousnesse in a different sense then ever they were before that time understood by the learned Judges of the Land our Mountebank must needs be the right heire and dispossesse the Gentleman of his ancient inheritance by misinterpreting the words of the patent absurdly and contrary to their knowne sense and to sentences and practise of the Court since ever Law was of force in England This is the case of all Protestants who pretend that there are cleare texts of Scripture against Catholick Tenets and practises The sense of Scripture which
Christianity either altogether or by halfe Hobbes saith Subjects may renounce all Christian Religion by words so they believe in their heart our Doctors of the English Church say Subjects may deny such points of Christian Religion as have beene renounced by their Soveraignes And when the Soveraigne will if ever that should happen deny all Christianity and believe no more then Turkes or Jewes it evidently followeth out of their principles though hitherto they durst not say it that the Subject may doe the same by an exteriour acquiescence untill the contrary be decreed in an imaginary generall Councell of their owne making and morally impossible to come together as hath beene said in the 7. Chapt. sect 8. for what reason can they have to accommodate themselves to their Prince and Church in denying some articles of Christian Religion and not all They have none I am sure to be angry with Master Hobbes who sayes nothing but what they also must say if they will sticke and be consequent to Protestant principles and particularly to the doctrine of the Church of England 3 That Protestancy doth incline the Subject to rebellion against his law full Prince is more evident then I wish it were by so many woefull experiences Their Reformation begunne in all places with rebellion and is like so to continue notwithstanding the vigilant care of wise Princes and Counsellours The reason is manifest because it s morally impossible that the conveniency of the Court should alwayes agree with the interest of the people and many times the Lawes of the Land being made to favour both are not so cleare in the behalfe of either The contrary being railed who must decide it Not the people saith the Prince because they are Subjects Not the Prince say the people because he is a part and Subject to Gods Law Both appeale to Scripture the sole Judge of Protestants controversies If the Scripture could speake and pronounce the sentence without an Interpreter all might end in peace and quiet but amongst Protestants every Subject speakes for Scripture and consequently for himselfe If every man be naturally inclined to favour himselfe and looke with a partiall eye upon his owne interest it s more then probable that Scripture interpreted by the Subjects will second their owne inclination and conveniency against that of Prince and Court neither is it lesse evident that the Prince and his adherents will not submit their judgements and wills to the finall and scripturall sentence of every Subject so that the sword and rebellion must end the controversy in that Religion where all men are supreme Judges and Interpreters of Scripture 4 And though the Prince may endeavour to incorporate the legistative power and the interpretation of the Lawes of the Land into his owne prerogative the Protestant Subjects will oppose it not onely as unreasonable but also as Antichristian pride and tyranny inconsistent with their Euangelicall liberty They will inferre this consequence If God hath made us Interpreters of his divine Law how can a Creature exclude us from interpreting the Lawes of the Land wherein we are so much concerned and which ought to be subordinate to Scripture Truly seeing no Protestant Prince or Church doth pretend to be infallible in declaring the true sense of Gods Word they can hardly condemne the Subjects private interpretation as contrary to Gods meaning all their Synodicall Decrees and legall Declarations against the Subjects fancy or pretended inspiration in favour of the Prince will be lookt upon by them who oppose his designes as suggestions of obsequious Courtiours and flattering Clergy and the people will stick to their owne interpretation of Scripture backing it with the words of the Apostles Act. 5. God ought to be more obeyed then men And if the Prince should declare that their text is but a pretext of rebellion they will retort his argument and say that his texts are but pretexts of tyranny and proclaime him a Rebell against God for the meanest of Protestant Subjects with a Bible in his hand is as absolute as his King with a Scepter nay more because he lookes upon the Scepter as subordinate to his Bible Thus you see how the liberty of interpreting Scripture is no lesse the ground of rebellion then of Protestant Faith and how politick Princes by undermining the ancient Catholick sense of Scripture with new fancies and interpretations have plotted their owne ruine and their posterities destruction And that this may appeare yet more evidently I will endeavour to prove Chap. IX That the Popes spirituall jurisdiction is nothing dangerous to Soveraignes but rather that the ground of fidelity and obedience due to them is utterly destroyed by denying the Popes supremacy and that it is a greater foppery in Protestants then in Catholicks to deny his infallibility 1 PRotestant Princes looke upon their Subjects with as jealous an eye as Spaniards or Italians doe looke to their wives The word forreigne jurisdiction though onely spirituall sounds to them as harshly and troubles them no lesse then the most injurious terme doth a suspicious husband This jealousy of Protestant Princes is no lesse fomented by the stupidity of some of their Writers then by the ambition of others Some as Master Hobbes for one looketh so dully upon man Leviathan part 3. ch 39. and government that he maketh no distinction betweene Spiritualists and Temporalists betweene the Church and State betweene the sword of Iustice and the shield of Faith betweene Christian and Man and is of opinion that out of such distinctions must needs follow faction and civill warre in the Commonwealth But other Protestant Writers admit these distinctions because they hope by them to reape some benefit or benefice Doctor Bramhall in his replication pag. 163. Nay of late some have printed that the King notwithstanding his supremacy is subject to the Archbishop of Canterbury in spirituall affaires and under the jurisdiction of his ordinary Ecclesiasticall Pastors but by no meanes under that of the Pope thinking it to be more for their Soveraignes honour to obey his Subjects then Saint Peters successor 2 That God should commit the charge of soules or any spirituall jurisdiction to temporall Princes is as incredible as it is evident that he did foresee what an ill accompt they would give of their Subjects Religion if they had the management of their owne consciences If they be so jealous of the Pope that notwithstanding he being a stranger and so farre of yet they feare he may reduce all temporall matters to his spirituall jurisdiction how doe they thinke it possible that God should not he jealous of trusting them with the soules of their owne Subjects seeing they may reduce all spirituall matters to temporall and abuse their power with much more ease and successe then the Pope can misapply his spirituall jurisdiction I am sure they ought to be more jealous of any of their owne Subjects supremacy then of the Popes spirituall jurisdiction and authority because
it is more easy for an Archbishop of Canterbury or any other in the Realme to make ill use of his supreme spirituall jurisdiction in England then it is for the Pope at so great a distance and with so little acquaintance Experience doth demonstrate that the Popes spirituall jurisdiction over all Christendome is not so dangerous as Protestant Lawes and petty Preachers doe pretend Histories doe testify that Popes have restored twenty Kings for one that they are said to depose neither did they ever pretend to depose any King untill his owne Subjects were weary of his tyrannicall government or all the world scandalized at his wicked heresies and in those very cases the Popes never tooke the Kingdome to themselves an evident argument that Religion not interest moved them to take so rigourous wayes whether warrantable or not let others dispute I cannot Yet this much I can assure Protestant Princes that Popes have exhorted their Subjects to obedience and patience when they were most persecuted In case any of his Ministers should be misinformed indiscrete or exceed his commission that fault cannot be attributed to his Master nor to the Religion of Catholick Subjects but rather to the ignorance of Catholick Tenets and of Canonicall Doctrine which commands Subjects to obey though their Soveraignes be not of their owne Religion 3 Kings and Princes by denying obedience to the Pope teach their Subjects to rebell against themselves and doe dispense with oath of alleageance The ground of fidelity and obedience due to hereditary Soveraignes is a constant tradition that he who actually resignes is lawfull successour to one whose right and jurisdiction was undoubtedly acknowledged and indeed there cannot be a more rationall and secure ground of obedience then tradition and a continuall succession of lawfull witnesses from one age to another Writings may be counterfeited Tradition cannot because its impossible to stop so many mouthes as deliver it to posterity or to contradict the testimony of whole Provinces and Nations This is the reason why Hereticks cannot gainesay the tradition of the Popes supremacy though they deny the supremacy it selfe and the truth of that Doctrine yet they are not so madly impudent as to deny what is evident to all Christendome to wit that there was a constant tradition when Luther revolted from the Church that the Bishop of Rome is Christs Vicar upon earth They onely pretend that this tradition is not a sufficient ground to oblige men to believe what it delivered or to acknowledge the Popes supremacy If it be not how can the tradition of one onely Nation be a sufficient ground to oblige Subjects to believe that their Soveraigne is lawfull King of France or Spaine or that they are bound in conscience to obey him There is not any King or Prince in Europe that hath so universall and constant a tradition for his temporall soveraignty as the Bishop of Rome hath to be Saint Peters lawfull successour and of Saint Peters being head of the Church under Christ by divine institution Pasce oves meas Feed my sheepe Joan. 21. and many other texts of Scripture have never beene otherwise understood in the Church by any but by declared Hereticks whose contradicting the tradition and ancient sense of Gods Word can as little prejudice the Popes right and supremacy as a declared Rebell can prejudice his Soveraigns right by calling in question his discent or royall authority When Saint Peters chaire is shaken by Protestant Princes their owne thrones must fall because it is not onely the fundation of the Catholick Church but the support of Christian Monarchy 4 Here I cannot omit to advertise my Reader what poore shifts some of the most learned Protestants are brought to they renew that so often and solidly refuted errour of making the Pope Patriarch onely of the West by misapplying the words of the Nicen Councell Baron an 325. Sirmondus Guther Card. Perron my râ—sp ad Object Reg. Brit. lib. 1 c. 32. 33. and concealing the true translation of the Canon as every man may see in the Authors cited in the margen The title of Patriarch of the West doth no more exclude the Popes supreme dignity of head of the Church under Christ then the title of Earle of Flanders doth exclude that of King of Spaine If the Bishops of Rome were not universall Patriarchs but Patriarchs onely of the West why did Saint Victor Pope in the second age of Christianity excommunicate all the Churches of Asia Euseb 5. hist 24. cap. 25. Spond 198. upon the difference of celebrating Easter for not accommodating themselves to the Roman Sea And though Saint Iretaeus did not approve of so great severity yet neither he nor any other called in question his authority They are also pleased to make the Pope Speaker in the generall Councells but not President they allowe him the place of first Bishop and call him exordium unitatis with Saint Cyprian but by no meanes will they grant him the title of infallible and supreme Pastor These are but weake and pittifull shifts whereunto Protestants are driven by the evidence of Councells Fathers Tradition and Catholick arguments contrary to the Tenets and Doctrine of their brethren of the late Church of England If the Pope be exordium unitatis he must be infallible in deciding the controversy proposed otherwise he will be exordium divisionis because no learned persons will submit their judgements in matters of Faith to a Judge that may be mistaken they will be as farre from his sentence and thoughts as from any other and the unity of Faith whereof Saint Cyprian speakes consists more in an unity of thoughts of judgements then of speech or exteriour acquiescence Such a dumb unity of Faith hath its beginning from Policy not Religion 5 They excuse themselves from the guilt and crime of Schisme as ridiculously as they impugne the Popes supremacy They accuse us Catholicks for the fault themselves committed because forsooth they left not our communion untill we thrust them out of doores It may be as well said that the Judge and not the thiefe is the malefactour because the Judge pronounced sentence against the thiefe The Roman Catholick Church had no more part in the Schisme of England then to declare Henry the VIII and Queene Elizabeth Schismaticks and Hereticks They committed the crime and the Pope pronounced the sentence Therefore the Roman Church or Court is guilty of Schisme is an excellent Protestant consequence But such fopperies we must expect from obstinate Hereticks that with a perverse will oppose no lesse their owne understandings then Catholick verities The Pope say they imposed new articles of Faith upon their tender consciences he made a new Creed and declared it was necessary to believe the same Therefore he was cause of the Schisme The same argument that the Arrians made against the Councell of Nice and Saint Athanasius his Creed doe these Hereticks now object against the Councell of Trent and Pope
Pius V. his profession of Faith Declarations against new heresies are no new Creeds they are but explanations of the old not new articles of Faith One article of Faith may be divided into many branches how many doth Saint Athanasius set downe in his Symbol of the Trinity and Incarnation The Catholick Church did alwayes practise this way when it was necessary to confute heresies If it was lawfull for the Church of the fourth age to command all Christians to professe and believe the Symbol of Saint Athanasius which was but an explanation of particulars contained in the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation why cannot the Church now explaine more particularly the Apostles Creed and any part of Scripture impugned by Hereticks and command all Christians to believe the same All the pretended new articles are contained in the Apostles Creed implicitely as in that of the Communion of Saints Remission of sinnes Catholick Church c. or at least in some text of Scripture as Transubstantiation in Christs words This is my Body The petty Ministers of the English Nags-head Church presume to make a new Creed of 39. articles protesting against the ancient Faith of Christendome and they admire that the Vicar of Christ and a generall Councell should warne all Catholicks to beware of their heresies and to that end declare in a Symbol of Faith more particularly the received Doctrine of the Church of God Away with these shamefull shifts of Hereticks whose last excuse for their Schisme is that they who begunne it were Roman Catholicks So were Rebells once loyall Subjects and yet that doth not excuse themselves or their adherents from the guilt of rebellion With these hereticall devises are many poore idiots misled by ungodly and wicked Preachers who gaine their living and credit by the damnation of soules that Christ our Saviour purchased at so deare a rate 6 The last thing I proposed in the title of this Chapter was that its a greater foppery in Protestants then in Catholicks to deny the Popes infallibily in deciding controversies of Christian Religion That it is a foppery in both must be evident to all persons that will reflect upon the nature of Christian Faith and the Bookes of holy Scripture When men believe as Christians they must exclude all manner of doubts and feares of being mistaken from the act wherewith they believe they cannot defend themselves from a new heresy by onely protesting against it by word of mouth they must detest it with their heart and understanding and believe the quite contrary truth There was never Heretick so simple as to broach an errour upon his owne score he alwayes pretends Gods Word for its fundation and backs it with as many texts of Scripture as Catholicks oppose against his heresy This was the practise of Arrians Nestorians and all other ancient Hereticks which Protestants doe now adayes imitate If the true meaning of Scripture were as visible to us as it is infallible in it selfe no Heretick would make use of the words of holy Writ because his fancy or interpretation would be easily discerned from the sense which God intended at least by combining and comparing one text with another but experience demonstrates that notwithstanding all combinations of one place of Scripture with another the controversy remaines and cannot be decided by Scripture alone To imagine that all which cannot be decided by Scripture alone is superfluous and the beliefe thereof not necessary for salvation is to dispense with the mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation seeing the Councell of Nice Soz. lib. 1. c. 16. Athan Apol. 2. and Saint Athanasius that great Champion of the Catholick Church confuted and condemned the Arrians not by Scripture alone but by tradition and adhearing not onely to the words but also to that sense of Scripture which that present Church had received from the former 7 Seeing therefore that controversies of Christian Religion must be decided by the sense as well as by the words of Scripture and that the said sense is more clearly delivered to us by tradition and the testimony of the Church then by the words themselves in controverted texts and that Hereticks may endeavour to confound their owne tradition with that of the true Catholick Church as the Quartadecimans did in the celebrating Easter and that they may invent new heresies never thought of in former ages supposing I say that all this is possible the remedy of these evills in the Church cannot be impossible and truly the remedy is impossible at least at all times to wit when generall Councells are not assembled if the Pope be not infallible in declaring what is heresy divine Faith and Catholick tradition Such few Catholicks as called in question the Popes infallibity excused their errour not onely with the infallibility but also with the morall possibility of a generall Councell whensoever a new heresy would be invented but they were grossely mistaken as experience doth demonstrate and a perpetuall generall Councell was never intended by God who commandeth the Bishops and Prelates to have a care of the particular Churches which he committed to their charge a thing not compatible with their continuall assistance in Constantinople Trent or any other one City where the Councell is assembled But Protestants hitherto have denyed even the English Church in the 21. of their 39. articles that generall Councells arc infallible and consequently must say that God commanded an impossibility bidding us beware of new heresies Act. 20. and not believe false Prophets when he left us no infallible Judge or Pastour to declare unto us what doctrine is heresy and who are the false Prophets No Catholick was ever so unreasonable as to defend such a foppery 8 And though of late some of our Nags-head Doctours contrary to the 21. article of their Creed and English Church acknowledge that generall Councells are infallible in deciding controversies of Faith and to their eternall shame and the infamy of their venerable Mother the Protestant Church of England are now forced to call the 39. Articles of their Religion by the name of onely probable opinions yet such a definition or description they give in their printed bookes of a generall Councell with so many odde conditions and so insuperable difficulties that onely mad men may hope to see such a Christian Assembly meete and much lesse agree in condemning any heresy or declaring what is Catholick Doctrine This new definition of a generall Councell is but a meere put of to gaine time that Nags-head errours may last as long as their Ministers but they are evidently convinced and condemned by the absurdity of their poore shift it s a greater foppery to admit of infallibility in an impossible Councell then to admit of a possible Councell without infallibility The first is an absolute Chimaera contrary to the evident light of naturall reason the second seemeth onely impossible to Christians that grant there is a Church of God upon earth and that be hath
the penall Lawes were enacted but it was a crime to be an Heretick or Apostata before the ancient Emperours and Kings made penall Lawes against heresy The Law supposed and did not make the crime as penall Statutes doe in England making a crime of Christian Religion 2. Hereticks are never condemned by the Inquisition without the testimony of many lawfull witnesses both living and dead all the ancient Fathers Councells and the whole Catholick Church of former ages testify that their errours are new and contrary to the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles no Rebell was ever more evidently convicted of rebellion against his Prince then Hereticks are by the Inquisition of heresy against God and the Apostolicall Church We Catholicks cannot obtaine so faire play at their hands we are condemned by a new Law because we are not Hereticks and our Judges are convicted of the crime they lay to our charge Surely this is to turne upside downe Justice and Judicature 3. The Inquisition medleth not with those who never were Catholicks but the penall Lawes comprehend them who never were of their Church or communion 4. The Inquisition condemns no Hereticks to death but onely declares their heresy to the end the faithfull may avoid their conversation its true the secular power executeth the secular against them notwitstanding that the Inquisition doth protest against that rigour and desireth that Hereticks may not be punished with death or effusion of bloud this protestation and petition is now and hath alwayes beene the continuall practise of the Roman Church but the penall Lawes of Protestants are written with bloudy caracters all their Courts are stained with the innocent and noble bloud of many learned and loyall Subjects onely because they would not take an oath against their conscience and abjure the Faith of their Christian Ancestours 5. Though the Inquisition were as unjust and rigorous as some of the ignorant Protestants pretend it could be no blemish to the Catholick Religion because it is not an universall practise but limited to Spaine and Italy at the instance of secular Princes who looke upon it as a necessary meanes to keepe their Subjects of those Nations in the feare of God and in awe of their Soveraignes But the penall Lawes of England are spread as farre as their Protestant Church and communion 6. The Inquisition doth seriously wish and endeavour the conversion amendment of Hereticks employing learned Divines to convince them of their errours and instruct them in the way of salvation but the penall Lawes and the oathes of supremacy alleageance and abjuration are like so many nets cast out by Protestants to fish estates in troubled consciences a farre different method from that of the Apostles who were fishers of men and not of estates Protestants fish for estates though not alwayes with successe In King Iames his reigne a Scot begged of his Majesty an English Catholicks estate to whom he procured that the oath of supremacy might be tendered never imagining that the Gentleman would take it or goe to Church and damne his soule to save his estate the Gentleman offered the Scot a faire composition but nothing would satisfy this beggar if he had not made the Catholick also a beggar who at length resolved to shew himselfe in the Church whereupon the Scot made him a most devout and learned exhortation dissuading him from all Protestant assemblies often repeating and explaining the words of our Saviour What doth it availe a man if he games all the world by the losse of his sale Yet the English man remained obstinate and resolved rather to give his soule to the Devill then his estate to a Scot. I believe there are many such beggarly Preachers now adayes in England if they consider well the text of the Scots Sermon they may apply it better to themselves then to Roman Catholicks 6 The last pretext for persecuting of English Catholicks is the massacre and murther of Protestants in Ireland in the beginning of the late troubles and this must be a preamble to all Proclamations and Oathes of abjuration What hath an English Catholick to doe with an lrish massacre I am sure he doth not thirst by nature after the bloud of his owne Nation and his Religion doth neither incline him to murther or rebellion That is a privilege of Protestancy we have a setled sense of Scripture which none can alter without breach of Catholick Faith and we are not Judges of our owne Controversies but must submit to a third and indifferent person But as for the murthers and massacres of Ireland so much and so often exaggerated in Protestant Pamphlets and Pulpits I onely say that Protestancy had a greater hand in them then Catholick Religion because our Tenets arc contrary to cruelty and bloudshead and though Catholicks may be as guilty of murther as other men the Religion cannot Is it not notorious that the Protestants in Ireland signed a bloudy Petition offered to the Parliament of England that all Irish who would not goe to Church might be extirpated or banished This was done before the Irish Catholicks did stirre But suppose that in Vlster some of the rascality or kernes being exasperated by so many and continuall injuries done to them by Protestants had murthered some persons must that reflect upon the English Catholicks and all the Irish Nation It is most certaine and evident that the murthers and massacres done in Ireland by Protestants exceeded without comparison those committed by Catholicks as well in respect of their brutishnesse as numerousnesse Witnesse their marches about Dublin where the Inhabitants were all of English extraction and spoke no other language but the ancient Saxon. There are very few of that populous Countrey called Fingale left alive all perished by fire and sword being a most innocent people and having nothing I rishlike in them but Catholick Religion In the march of the Protestant Army to the County of Wicklo man woman and child was killed a Gentle woman big with child was hanged at an arch of a bridge and the poore Catholick that guided the Army for reward of his service at parting being commanded to blow into a pistol was shot therewith into the mouth though there had beene no murther committed on the Protestants in that County In another march into the same shire one Master Comain an aged Gentleman who never bore armes was roasted alive by one Captaine Gines yea they murthered all that came in their way from within two miles of Dublin In a march into the County of Kildare in or about February 1641. some of the Officers going into Mrs Eustate of Cradogstons house a sister to Sir William Talbot of eighty yeares of age who being unable to shunne entertained them with meate and drinke after dinner her selfe and another old Gentlewoman and a girle of eight yeares of age were murthered by the said Protestant Officers Walter Evers Esquire aged and sickly and of a long time before the warre bed-ridden being carried by
be excluded by the Princes or people from the government of the Common-wealth though some of them have beene more mistaken and are more subject to erre in that art then the Clergy their argument therefore may be with more force retorted against themselves 3 Polititians are Joyners by their trade their art consists in joyning the common good with the interest of the Prince It must be a cleare judgement that will not confound these two things and he must be no lesse vertuous then wary that will not incline more to one side then to the other Seculars are pleased to acknowledge more vertue in Churchmen then in themselves but they doubt much of their judgements If study of sciences and knowledge of what passed in former ages doth perfect mans understanding Churchmen have the advantage of seculars in judging of affaires who have not so much time to spare from their passetimes nor so great an inclination and obligation to learne as the Clergy But seculars though they were as learned as Churchmen cannot apply themselves so seriously to the study of the common good because they have much more to consider in particular and domestick affaires they must provide for their wife and dispose of their children Yet in case they should spend but little time in so neare a concernment they cannot deny that the Prince and Commonwealth runne a hazard in trusting them with publick offices and revenues out of which they will be very apt to provide portions for their daughters and employments for their sonnes Clergymen are neither troubled themselves nor trouble the Commonwealth with such burthen and consequently are more fit then seculars to manage the publick affaires A Churchman perhaps may endeavour to promote his Nephew but there is great difference betweene the affection of a Father and of an Uncle 3 The obligation and custome which Church-men have to spend more houres in their devotions then seculars doth give more advantage by perfecting their mindes then it doth prejudice by taking up their time not ouely because with God no time is lost who recompenseth aboundantly by his grace and illustrations other studies and thoughts but also because true policy must direct all things with subordination to Gods Law and the more we meditate therein the better Polititians we are Yet Churchmen after complying with their devotions haue more time to consider of affaires then seculars who are more in the Taverne then in the Church and frequent other passetimes when Churchmen are in their studies 4 All mankinde is so much concerned in the government of Commonwealths that it is not improper for the most retired of the Clergy sometimes to appeare in publick affaires We read of Monks that came along from Egypt to Constantinople to treate with Emperours about matters of great concernment Hermits have returned to the world from the desarts when they judged it necessary for the common good Suppose a man were buried alive in a grot under the walls of a Towne to the end he might shunne humane conversation if he doth heare the Enemy undermining the wall he is bound in conscience to leave his retirement and give notice of the common danger When a house is a fire they who are next must runne to quench it There is no profession so retired or so contrary to the management of State affaires that can excuse men from appearing in publick when they are concerned in the good of a Nation or Religion especially if they be next in trust of a Treaty or knowledge of a danger Much lessâ—â—â—n men separated from the world deny accesse to others who demand their advice in doubtfull and intricate matters of State wherein conscience may runne a hazard Princes and Counsellours consult their Confessours in Cloisters and thinke them more apt to judge of worldly affaires then others that live and negotiate in the world It is no disparagement for that grave and sage Counsell of Spaine that the Kings Confessour hath a place and vote amongst them he may be a witnesse that nothing is resolved which is not agreable to Christian and Catholick principles his profession is not contrary to an office out of which so much good may be derived to others Bishops are Counsellours in France and all other Catholick Countries and Abbots who professe a most retired life came from their Cloisters and Cells to sit in Parliament when Religion did flourish most in England and the same is practised to this day in other Nations with as great satisfaction of the Prince as benefit to the Commonwealth 5 There is nothing more necessary for a Statesman then secrecy whereof Churchmen give continually evident proofes in hearing Confessions Seculars may be secret but the world hath not so much reason to believe it seeing so many designes and great businesses miscarry for want of secrecy which I never heard laid to the charge of a Clergyman that was trusted in a businesse of State It s a received maxime amongst seculars that women are best informers and that they are made acquainted with whatsoever is debated in Counsells or Assemblies Fond husbands thinke they doe not love their wives if they conceale any thing from their knowledge and consequently from that of their Gossips It s thought the English Nation is more inclined to be advised by women then any other but without doubt it is of late since women ruled the Church and were made Popes dispensed with invalid Ordinations and by imposition of hands made Archbishops of Canterbury But seeing no man will trust his wife with his owne conscience and confession methinks he ought not to impart to her the secrecies of others At least the Catholick Clergy cannot be suspected to consult with their wives the secrecy of Princes because they have none but for the Protestant Ministers behaviour in this particular I will not sweare being as I heare more fond of their wives then any others and having notoriously betrayed secrets communicated to them in confession as you may read of Scory the Minister who betrayed the Earle of Essex in Queene Elizabeths time and in our dayes the case of poore Captain Hinde was much lamented who some few yeares since being accused of murther Captain Hindes lamentable case denyed it confidently there being no legall proofe But perswaded by a Minister of the English Protestant Church that the Judge was resolved to hang him and that he had aboundant proofe he exhorted the poore man to confession according to the custome or Common-prayer men and Church or England whereof both were Members Master Hinde told the Minister in confession that he had killed one of his owne Camerades and he promised to visit and comfort his penitent the next day but feigning himselfe sick he sent another Minister of the English Church also and desired Master Hinde to deale as confidently with him as he had done the day before with himselfe which the poore Gentleman did imparting likewise to him in confession what he had told the day